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47 comments

Given that we’re taught in driver’s ed not to watch the road right in front of us but keep our eyes on the horizon, this encouragement to keep your eyes on the asphalt right over your hood is a little schizophrenic of them.

It’s more or less the same confustion you get when you learn a sinic Asian language, one of the ones which are traditionally written vertically from right to left (though all of them can be written horizontally, left to right, now), and so when you see vertical writing in English, it’s almost always left-to-right, which is, I’m afraid, backwards.

When I first moved to the Sacto area some years ago and was confused by the “Ahead Stop” on some of the recently suburbanized roads I was told by a long time resident that it was so you could read it in the dreaded Tule fog. I’ve never experienced the phenomena in that area, but have down in the Delta and it seems quite plausible.

ajay,
It’s because we all want to imagine ourselves as US Senators. “I yield the intersection to the senior car from Massachusetts.”
In American English, “give way” unfortunately either sounds like Cookie Monster talk or, more directly, suggests collapsing.

My pet peeve: “Right Lane Exit Only”. Its meaning is ambiguous: it could be “the lane is ending and you must exit”, or “if you exit here, there will be no entrance ramp to get back on”. I have seen it used for both situations. What’s wrong with “right lane must exit” for the first meaning?

Ooh, my bike path tells me “Peds to Yield”, which I understand to mean that I can plow right through them. If they wanted me to yield, they’d print it the other way up.

I have, somewhat egotistically, wondered if this is a reading speed issue. A fast reader sees the whole phrase at once, and reads it top to bottom. Maybe these signs are designed for a slower reader, who’s expected to take it them in one.word.at.a.time.

Fair enough, eliz, until one tries to account for the reversal of the word order. I always imagine an old car with giant rust-holes in the floor, so the words appear one at a time between the driver’s feet.

Does the “Expect Delays” sign ever *create* delays? I’m often annoyed at the electronic signs that take 2 screens to say something they could have fit into one screen, thus creating a slowdown as people cruise to catch the second screen.

I read “Wrong Way” upside down yesterday, and briefly panicked before sorting it.